Radiation-emitting devices are generally known and used for radiation therapy in the treatment of patients, for example. Typically, a radiation therapy device includes a gantry which can be swiveled around a horizontal axis of rotation in the course of a therapeutic treatment. A linear accelerator is located in the gantry for generating a high-energy radiation beam for therapy. This high radiation beam can be an electron radiation or photon (X-ray) beam. During treatment, the radiation beam is provided on one zone of a patient lying in the isocenter of gantry rotation.
The delivery of radiation by a radiation therapy device is normally prescribed and approved by an oncologist with administration by a therapist. Typical therapy involves programming the device by the therapist to deliver the radiation beam from the linear accelerator at a known and constant rate of a chosen number of monitor units per time period, (e.g., MU/minute), where a monitor unit generically refers to a dose unit of radiation for a chosen calibration and indicates the resolution of the radiation therapy device. With the resolution preset, changes to increase the resolution are difficult without altering the linear accelerator hardware/firmware, which is both expensive and time-consuming. For example, in some situations, it may be determined that a fractional number of monitor units are desired for a particular treatment plan, but the available radiation treatment device may only have a resolution of a single monitor unit. In such situations, the desired treatment dose cannot be delivered as precisely as is preferred.
Therefore, what is needed is a manner of effectively increasing the resolution of a radiation therapy device without altering the linear accelerator hardware/firmware.